#SAvBAN Proteas look to bat Bangladesh out the park

Dean Elgar, left, and Aiden Markram keep busy between the wickets in the second Test between South Africa and Bangladesh in Bloemfontein yesterday. Photo: BackpagePix

At the end of the sixth over Mushfiqur Rahim lent down to pick up the ball as it nestled against the boundary cushion at long-off - he let out a sigh and tossed it back to a teammate . . . a long and painful day was just beginning.

The bowler of that sixth over was Soumya Sarkar, the fourth bowler Mushfiqur had employed by that stage of the South African innings.

The boundary, an easy off-drive by Dean Elgar, was the sixth that had been struck to that point.

Bangladesh had won the toss - again. Mushfiqur had chosen to bowl - again. It was the wrong decision - again.

Choosing to bowl was a decision based on fear, which makes it hard to reconcile this Bangladesh side with the one that’s been so powerful at home recently.

In both Tests Mushfiqur has based his decision to bowl on the reputation of South African pitches not the pitches that have been presented to him here and in Potchefstroom.

That reputation is based on pace and bounce and it is a scary one for players from the sub-continent. The two pitches used in this series have had neither pace nor bounce.

Two weeks ago the players from the Cape Cobras and the Knights split six hundreds and scored more than 1000 runs in two innings at this ground.

Even though the Proteas had asked for extra grass to be left on this surface, by the time Mushfiqur and his counterpart Faf du Plessis were present for the toss, it was more brown than green.

“Nine times out of 10 you will bat first,” said Du Plessis after his side had been inserted. “It is a very normal cricket wicket.”

It meant his very young attack, led by 22-year-old Kagiso Rabada, could put their feet up for the day.

It meant his young opening batsman, playing just his second Test, had an opportunity to make up for missing out on a first Test century on his debut.

It meant a lot of pain for Mushfiqur and his bowlers.

And while Mushfiqur deserves admonishment for erring again at the toss, his bowlers certainly didn’t help their captain try to atone for that error.

With the exception of Mustafizur Rahman and later Rubel Hossain, Bangladesh’s bowling was awful.

Taijul Islam, the left-arm spinner, offered no control; instead he offered lots of boundary balls - 14 came off his bowling.

Shubhashis Roy’s first over was a maiden, his second went for 15 and he was out of the attack.

By the time stumps were drawn Mushfiqur had used eight bowlers - they had conceded 58 boundaries.

The only pressure for Elgar and Markram was to avoid getting out to this poor bowling.

Elgar, in top form and confident-feasted, scoring the fastest half-century of his career and turning it into the fastest hundred of his career.

Markram was more circumspect. Perhaps he was surprised at how poor Bangladesh bowled. Test cricket was supposed to be “hard” every expert would have told him. And to be fair it will be hard, but when it’s as easy as it was yesterday it’s best you cash in.

And Markram did just that, registering that maiden Test century, raising both arms soaking up the applause from his teammates and the new coach.

The opening pair have produced back-to-back century stands, a confidence booster the team so desperately needed after a difficult 2017 in that department.

Bangladesh briefly pulled themselves together before tea when Mushfiqur called on his quicks to utilise the bouncer. Elgar should have been caught by the wicketkeeper on 110, he was caught at deep fine leg after making 113 - a more fluent innings than he’s accustommed to playing.

Markram fell to the ball of the day from Robel for 143 and when Temba Bavuma gifted his wicket to Subhashis for seven, South Africa had lost 45/3 in eight overs.